Ledger
How I Lead
Every decision runs through one lens: what is best for the business.
- Span of control: 4 to 10 direct reports; prefers 6 to 7, organized by function
- Style: collaborative, decisive, direct
How I run a team
- Professionalize the company
- Build the team, then get out of its way
- Decide with integrated information
Credentials
- Certified Public AccountantIllinois; CPE maintained in IL, WA, WI
- MBA, FinanceUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas
- Certified Franchise ExecutiveInternational Franchise Association
- Lean Six Sigma Black BeltUC San Diego Extended Studies
- Franchise Management CertificationUniversity of Louisville
- BS, Business Administration and ManagementUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas
- Certificate in AccountingUC San Diego
Beyond work
- Friends of St. AugustinePresident, 2018-2022
Blueprint
What I bring to a company
- Professionalize: give a founder's company the systems, controls, and team to scale without losing what made it work.
- See the whole board: finance, operations, construction, and brand in one view, so decisions are made with the full picture.
- Build what's missing: if the tool, the law, or the process doesn't exist, create it.
- Choose the path on purpose: long-term growth or a well-run exit, decided early and executed deliberately.
- Integrate on purpose: own the links of the chain that buy speed and control, and partner for the rest so the core stays the core.
Vertical integration, on purpose
Nearly every company I've run owned more than one link of its chain: making the product, moving it, selling it, and serving it. I integrate to gain time and grow faster, and only where it strengthens the core.
| Grow and source | Make | Distribute | Sell | Serve | Build | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joseph James Brewing Company | no | no | no | |||
| Fish Brewing Company | no | |||||
| Mikkeller Brewing | no | |||||
| everbowl | no | no | ||||
| WeBuild Global | no | no | no | no |
Ownership environments
Founder-led, private equity, venture-backed, and companies with hundreds of shareholders. I've delivered in all of them.
Roadblocks cleared
Multiple alcohol production types could not share one facility.
ClearedStructured licensing and operations to run them together.
State law and local ordinance banned on-site sales. We couldn't even pour our own beer at our own festivals.
ClearedHelped establish a brewers guild and lobbying arm that led the charge for non-gaming taprooms. Another organization finished it after the sale.
Washington law did not allow beer trucks at private events.
ClearedPart of the group that changed the law, making mobile service an extension of the taproom. It became the main fundraising vehicle for Friends of St. Augustine.
Health departments did not understand brewing.
ClearedEducated regulators directly and through speaking engagements.
The market had no tool for it.
ClearedBuild it: shop jigs and templates, or software and automation built with AI.